David Cameron's father ran a network of offshore investment funds to help build the family fortune that paid for the prime minister's inheritance, the Guardian can reveal.

Though entirely legal, the funds were set up in tax havens such as Panama City and Geneva, and explicitly boasted of their ability to remain outside UK tax jurisdiction.

And this is the man who talks about a general anti-avoidance rule saying:

"With the large companies, that have the fancy corporate lawyers and the rest of it, I think we need a tougher approach.

"One of the things that we are going to be looking at this year is whether there should be a general anti-avoidance power that HMRC can use, particularly with very wealthy individuals and with the bigger companies, to make sure they pay their fair share."

10 Responses

Sorry Richard but this is a complete non-story. There is no evidence that DC or any of his family, didn’t pay full UK tax on any funds that were repatriated to the UK. Therefore, in my opinion, he hasn’t either avoided or evaded anything.

It effectively nullifies a transaction if there’s no material purpose besides tax planning/tax avoidance. SO things like ‘head quarters’ in geneva with 3 puppet employees get nullified out and allow the tax authority to assess accordingly.

[…] There has, apparently, been some disquiet about the Guardian attacking David Cameron’s late father’s tax arrangements, which were reported in the Guardian yesterday. The New Statesman did, for example, refer to this matter. I admit I have no such disquiet. […]